If you’re travelling home for Christmas and looking for some new tunage or just are looking for an aural escape from the annual family get together these little free MP3 nuggets might what you’re after.
First Word Records have released an LP handcrafted for your listening pleasure. Running to 12 tracks, Two Syllables Six Volume Six features label stalwarts Souleance, Ariya Astrobeat Arkestra, Kidkanevil, Homecut, Lotek & Amenta and is well worth getting on the D/L. For those travelling home for Christmas but don’t fancy listening to Chris Rea – most of our readership I’d hope – then Neon Neon can sate your music x travelling needs with their comback track entitled Wheels. Released by the lovely folk at Lex, it’s good to see Gruff and Boom Bip back behind the wheel of their DeLorean.
And last but not least, if you’re after some serious hours of new musical experiences, then why not cop the entire back catalogue of Bonafide Beats. Over the past 12 months we’ve had contributions from Vast Aire, Handbook, MC Sole, Ugly Duckling, Mexicans With Guns, Stay + , Mike-L and Lopez, purveyors of ambitious, experiemental, exciting and progressive musical styles. Maybe, just maybe, the best present you’ll find under the digital Christmas tree this year.
Woahhhh have Lex really been delivering the goods for 10 years?! Apparently so, and to mark this momentous occasion for a UK record label that has few contemporary peers – few other labels have consistently dropped new markers in the field that is designated ‘left of field’ in the world of hip-hop – are releasing 10. 10 is an compilation of 10 exclusive tracks by the likes of Jneiro Jarel, DOOM, Thom York, Neon Neon, Boom Bip, Dosone and Fog. Tracks are currently being released in digital sizzle format on a weekly basis, before they are compiled into a must have picture disc released in January 2012.
Also worth visiting to pick up a last minute Christmas present or two is the new Lex Store. The store is a great place to spend five minutes digging through. One of the main reasons is it gives you the chance to peruse a lot of the design work crafted by Ehquestionmark? which has the rare effect of making you want to buy the vinyl even if you haven’t heard the music – how nice is that cover for Boom Bip’s Zig ZajLP? Also lurking is a great limited edition pack that features two screen-prints by illustrator Yu Sato, one commemorating DOOM & Ghostface Killah’s show at The Roundhouse, London, and Lex Records 10th Anniversary poster.
Klashnekoff took the main stage in Bonafide magazine issue 04 and in doing so proved that he’s still one of the most colourful characters in UK hip-hop.
So it was good to see this video of a live performance of Murda. Recorded by Paragon Pictures at a gig in Blackburn, there’s no sold-out audience, no X-Factor stadia and no hiding place during this intimate gig. Just low ceilings daubed in sweat, a baying crowd and Klash’s energy, attitude and technique. Well worth a peep.
Drum roll… Bonafide magazine’s first proper foray into world of video promos. Produced by the crazily talented Jim Hill (with able assistance from Ricky Kershaw), we think this vid captures perfectly the energy, excitement and ethos of issue 05, and hopefully helps sum up what a printed publication that’s all about the love for concrete culture should be about. Now go make a brew, sit back and be entertained. And if you ain’t checked a copy yet, what are you waiting for?
The easy-on-the-eye artwork motivated me to give this new mini-mix by Manchester’s Mecca:83 a spin. A preview for his forthcoming Life Sketches Vol 1 and 2, this tasty piece of work showcases Mecca’s adroit ability to mix tasteful tunes. Listening to this took me back to Manchester’s own Golden Era of Fat City and Grand Central. Good times.
Ben Drury, legendary go-to man for anyone wanting street influenced graphic design that drips with innovation and freshness, has broken cover from his esoteric and sometime plain unfathomable The Silent Listener(or the Violent Whistler as it is now called) website and launched a more commercially minded space to showcase his far reaching and influential talents.
The new site show’s off everything from his record covers, promo direction and love of handcrafted typography. An inspiring insight into the work of a man best summed up as a ‘designers designer’.
This summer saw the 10 year anniversary of Lewis Recordings. Founded by former Hip-Hop Connection writer/photographer Mike Lewis, the small North London based imprint has quietly gone about the business of releasing quality hip-hop, electronic and pop records in highly desirable packaging by a diverse roster of artists including Andrew Thompson, Stig of the Dump, Cinnamon and most notably, Edan, whose unique brand of psychedelic hip-hop has received critical and commercial acclaim upon his all too infrequent releases.
We have all of Edan’s singles, albums and indeed a sack full of pretty much every Lewis Recordings release in both vinyl and CD format to give away to one lucky reader. To stand a chance of winning just email in at mailbox@bonafidezine.com. with your name, age and address details. Winners will be notified by the 20th November.
This week I thought I’d use the Charlie Sloth mixtape for Top Boy, as a way to crowbar in a mention of the new Channel 4 drama. Staring Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson (better known as Kano), the promotional blurb unfortunately uses the words ‘raw’ and ‘gritty’ hackneyed PR terms that do a disservice to anything that actually has depth. And watching the extended traileryou get the impression that Top Boy might just be a heavy slice of original British drama. Written by Ronan Bennet, Face and Public Enemies, who plunged himself deep into gang culture to research the work, and with cinematography that recalls the work of German photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg – think the beautiful but bleak album cover for The Streets debut LP – and Top Boy looks like it will be an illuminating, charged and sobering affair.
Complementing the Top Boy posts comes Lowkey’s open letter to government and it’s failure to connect to the voice and needs of disenfranchised and underprivileged. Sombre and powerful stuff.
M.C. Mell’O’ Thoughts Released (Revelation 1) Original Dope
The recently established re-issue label Original Dope has a simple remit of preserving hip- hip and its legacy. A duty they’ve so far fulfilled to the nth degree – pumping out British rap classics and lost American standards that may have been missed by heads and heathens the first time round.
On the go since 2010 and curated by Andy Cowen, long-time editor of Hip-Hop Connection, Original Dope’s output is still in single figures but there’s not a dud among them.
These choice albums have been dredged from the record collections of music fiends who know their onions and the resulting re-issue (that ends up in your sweaty palm as a slick CD with heavy duty liner notes) has been polished up like the family silver. Not only do you get a dope album to be banged out of woofers, tweeters and whatever else you’ve got hooked up, but you get all the bells and whistles as well - bonus tracks and digitally re-fiddled goodness.
